File photo

UC Berkeley beat Arizona State in the grand final of a Heroes of the Storm tournament Sunday that was televised on ESPN 2, marking the first time eSports received extended air time on an ESPN channel. The network has been slowly building up its eSports coverage over the last year (The International was streamed on ESPN 3 last summer, X Games Austin had a Call of Duty tournament while X Games Aspen featured a Counter-Strike tournament), but many people were a bit shocked to see video games on television. A number of ESPN employees tweeted about the event, and most of the reactions ranged from curiously overwhelmed to bemused to genuinely entertained.

Not everybody is happy, though. On Monday, ESPN’s Colin Cowherd slammed the network for putting eSports on air in a vitriolic rant during his radio show.  Cowherd said that he will quit his job if he ever has to cover eSports, some of which draw more viewers than the NBA Finals.

“Here’s what’s going to get me off the air. If I am ever forced to cover guys playing video games, I will retire and move to a rural fishing village and sell bait. You want me out? Demand video game tournaments on ESPN because that’s what appeared on ESPN 2 yesterday.”

Cowherd, who mistakenly called it a League of Legends tournament, went on to mock the commentators of the event.

“Somebody lock the basement door at mom’s house and don’t let ’em out. I will quit this network if I am ever asked to cover that. I tolerated Donkey Kong. I’ll tell you what that was the equivalent of… of me putting a gun in my mouth and having to listen to that.”

(Thanks to SportsGrid and @Slasher for sharing this video.)